Retrofit Accessibility

The practice of adding accessibility features to a product, system, or interface after it has already been designed and built for non-disabled users. Retrofit accessibility often results in suboptimal experiences because the fundamental interaction paradigms may be misaligned with assistive technology workflows — for example, web agents designed around mouse movements and visual screenshots are inherently incompatible with screen reader use. Research argues that designing for both visual and non-visual access simultaneously from the beginning produces better outcomes and avoids the interaction mismatches common in retrofitted systems.